Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies (GEMCS) 2008 Conference:"Appetite, Desire, and Gargantuan Pleasures"November 20-23, 2008, PhiladelphiaCannibalistic Thinking in Early Modern Poetry, Drama, Travel Narratives,and Liturgical Texts

â€œI think there is more barbarity in eating a man alive than eating him deadâ€ â€" Michel de Montaigneâ€™s â€œOf Cannibalsâ€

The popularity of cannibalism as a topic in essays and in literary anddramatic representation is reflected in the quantity and variation of earlymodern works that deal with the topic. While the Brazilians Jean de Leryencounters in his History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil are made allthe more primitive by their cannibalistic practices, Shakespeareâ€™s Titusinvokes a perfect revenge against Tamora in having her eat her children.Post-colonial scholars and psychoanalysts have long claimed thatcannibalism nearly always parallels with the conquerorâ€™s desire to defineoneself in opposition either the body consumed, or the bodies that consume. If the secular concept of cannibalism represents the Englishmenâ€™sdestructive desire to consume other cultures by imagining their socialhabits as being less than human, then that idea is made all the morecomplex when we consider the practiceâ€™s sacred origins.

>From religious and mythological sources such as Ovidâ€™s Philomela, Hesiodâ€™sTheogony, and the Tantalus myth to the Christian tradition of communion,early modern Englishmen were becoming increasingly introspective of boththe Catholic concept of transubstantiation and the non-western Europeanideologies introduced during the Renaissance. This language of cannibalismand the ideas associated with it become a rhetoric of difference and itpermeates the English imagination, filtering itself through the periodâ€™spoetry, drama, and essays.

This panel looks to explore the various ways that cannibalism is portrayedand enacted. Who are â€œthe playersâ€ in cannibalism? Who gets to eat whom? If cannibalism represents a power struggle, is it confined to a certainclasses, specific ethnic or racial groups, or unique social interactions?Panelists should consider the various ways that the term cannibalism can bedefined, and the effects those definitions have on the ideologies used toconstruct the early modern body.

Panelists may look at cannibalism from any historical or theoreticalperspective, including: religious, feminist, post-colonial, or Marxistmodes of inquiry, amongst others. Suggested texts to consider could include: Early modern reinterpretations of Greco-Roman cannibalism myths Shakespeareâ€™s Titus Andronicus Essayists writing on encounter or cannibalism specifically Metaphysical poetry Early travel narratives Anticipations of â€œA Modest Proposalâ€ and Dunciad